According to the US International Trade Commission, India will get $1.95 billion less from the World Bank and $1.6 billion from the ADB in fiscal 1999 due to the sanctions which bar development loans by multilateral Financial institutions.

The independent commission, whose views were sought by the US House of Representatives' committee on ways and means, however, said the loss to American corporations will be much more, perhaps staggering if the sanctions were persisted over a long term.

The commission's views were sought in the wake of the Glenn Amendment, which was activated by the Clinton administration after the Pokharan nuclear tests in May 1998.

India secured only $1 billion of loan from the World Bank this year, which is part of the $1.44 billion loan set inmotion before the sanctions were imposed.

The commission cautioned that if the sanctions persisted, the loss of jobs in the US could run into thousands besides credibility loss to US companies. This assumes significance, as finance minister Yashwant Sinha will press for early clearance of pending projects during the ongoing Fund-Bank meeting. The commission pointed out that "India had been scheduled to receive about $3 billion" a year from the World Bank against the actual approval totalling $1.05 billion in fiscal 1999.

One of the strongest letters on the sanctions in response to the commission's questionnaire came from Boeing, the world's leading aircraft manufacturer which faces increasing competition from Europe's Airbus.

In its submission, Boeing said: "India and Pakistan are two markets that are exceedingly important for exports and for collaboration in such areas as component and machine tool manufacturing, software development, and research and development engineering support."

Boeingforecasts that India and Pakistan will require 280 to 550 additional aircraft worth $25-40 billion during the next 20 years. These exports would support upwards of 440,000 high-wage, high-technology US jobs.

Michael T Clark of the US-India Business Council, representing 85 US companies, said that economic interests of US investors and exporters should be based on long-term considerations as India's economic potential is forecast to increase substantially over 10 years.

There were several other responses to the commission's questionnaire, which spoke against the sanctions and the harm to United States companies.